The Israeli prison service (IPS) has been preventing the wife of Palestinian prisoner Marwan al-Barghouthi from visiting him since last April’s “Freedom and Dignity” hunger strike.

In press remarks on Monday, Fadwa al-Barghouthi said that the Red Cross had managed to obtain one permit for her visit to her husband since last April, but she was barred from seeing him after her arrival at the prison.

She asserted that she waited for about 10 hours before jailers informed her that her permit was revoked and thus she could not see her husband.

Fadwa expressed her belief that her supportive position towards the last hunger strike was the reason behind the Israeli decision to ban her from seeing Barghouthi, pointing out that the ban on her visits to her husband would be effective until 2019.

Barghouthi, a lawmaker and a member of Fatah’s central committee, has been in jail since 2002, serving five life terms and another 40 years.